The defeat of proposed constitutional amendments on Michigan’s ballot is a good sign for the future, political insider John Truscott said in Holland Tuesday.

“They were bad issues. It showed anybody with a million to million and a half dollars can get whatever they want on the ballot,” Truscott said. “This was a case of people generally trying to hijack our constitution, and the voters said no, enough. ... That renews my faith in voters.”

Truscott, president of the Truscott Rossman public relations firm and media relations director under former Republican Governor John Engler, spoke at a Michigan West Coast Chamber of Commerce breakfast Tuesday.

All six ballot proposals were defeated in the Nov. 6 election. Proposal 1 was different than the others, a referendum on an existing law that can still be fixed by the state legislature, Truscott said.

“I think we’re in really good shape in terms of where we are as a state,” he said after the speech.

Presidential election

Re-capping the presidential election, Truscott highlighted the effectiveness of the Obama campaign’s grassroots machine, and a strategic mistake made by the Romney campaign to rely on untried technology.

He also said the Republican Party held too many primary debates, fueling rivalry between the candidates. Romney emerged from the primary fight bloodied and impoverished before the title bout with Obama ever began, Truscott said.

“We move on,” he said. “You have to learn why you lost and go on and study that.”

He said the Republican Party has strengths, including 30 out of the country’s 50 governors, a good “bench” of diverse political players ready and able to step into federal roles.

Looking ahead

Truscott said Republicans should prepare for the off-year election in 2014.

He forecast that Democrat reforms over the next two years won’t sit well with voters.

“Voters like change, but incremental change,” he said. “But I think the White House will move too fast.”

U.S. Rep. Bill Huizenga, R-Zeeland, who attended the event, prepared to hop on a plane back to D.C. as the speech ended. Among the work in front of Congress is figuring out how to avoid a package of tax increases and spending cuts, known as the fiscal cliff, which takes effect as scheduled Jan. 1.

Huizenga said he thought Congress would be able to work something out.